Do you want to go straight to a particular resource? Use the Jump Tool and follow 2 steps:

  • Look for the pages that have the shortcut code symbol Quill - Jump To Icon (e4242)
    Jump To
    e4242
  • You can click this icon to copy the jump to url to that page to your clipboard, ready to paste into emails, notes, documents or research papers as needed.

This can usually be found in the top hero section of overview, delegations visualize, session visualize, event visualize, commentary collection, commentary item, resource collection, and resource item pages.

Enter the shortcut code for the page that you wish to search for.

Retrieving full text, please wait

No additional information is available.

Collection associations (0)

None

Already have an account? Login here

Don't have an account? Register here

Forgot your password? Click here to reset it

Search Results

The Slave Trade Under Discussion

Research Assistants' Commentary (1787 Constitutional Convention)

Cite as: Grace Mallon, ‘The Slave Trade Under Discussion’ in Research Assistants' Commentary (1787 Constitutional Convention), Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 45.

Jump To
m45

To see the full record of a committee, click on the corresponding committee on the map below.

Preparing Visualisation - please wait

Research Assistants' Commentary (1787 Constitutional Convention)

To read a specific commentary item, please click on its link.

Search title
Reconstructing the Rules
The problem of the First Two Propositions
Madison's Proposed Amendment on Suffrage
Voting on Hamilton's Proposed Amendment
Journal Unclear
Pennsylvania
Spelling in 9th resolution.
Debate not returned to
Elections and Terms of Service
Relationship of the Committee Reports to the Virginia Plan
The South and Voting on the Three-Fifths Compromise
Pinckney Compares Slaves to Peasants
Inclusion of Gerry's Resolution in Other Documents
Ordering the Events of July 20th
Gouverneur Morris has a change of heart
Resolutions from the Convention for the Committee of Detail
Resolutions from the Convention for the Committee of Detail
Resolutions from the Convention for the Committee of Detail
Notes on the Committee of Detail
Pinckney's Plan in the Committee of Detail
Wilson's Sketch
Documents VI & VIII: The First Committee Draft
The Supreme Court
Geography and Seasonality at the Convention
Gorham's Faith in the Future of the Union
Records for the Debate over Article VI, section 8
Ordering Article VII, Section 1
Motion to Adjourn Rejected
Discrepancy on Militia Motions
Racial Attitudes - "Struck Out As Superfluous"
Records from the Grand Committee
The Slave Trade Under Discussion
Reconstructing the Committee on Taxation
When was a vote taken on Dickinson's amendment?
Opposition to the Constitution: Gerry and Mason
Uncertain Departure of Alexander Martin
Membership of the Grand Committee on Law in the States
Representing the Reports of the Grand Committee on Postponed Questions
Representing the Remaining Parts of the Fourth Clause of the Report of the Grand Committee on Postponed Questions
Representing Mason's Motion on the Executive Council
Reconstructing the Committee of Style
Report on Articles XXII and XXIII
The Journal Record of 14th September
Getting Around the Decision Not to Include a Bill of Rights

The Slave Trade Under Discussion

Commentary

This section of debate holds a great deal of interest: one of the relatively few moments in the Convention where the morality of slavery and the slave trade are explicitly discussed, it showcases a moment of humanity from Luther Martin of Maryland (a tobacco-growing region with a significant slave population), as well as a hard-nosed defence of the institution from John Rutledge, calling on the Convention to recognize the primacy of raison d'état.

Associated event

Report of the Committee of Detail [Resolutions] - Article VII: Section 4 - Second Clause: Martin for "Free Persons" was debated on 21 August 1787